Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk Shortlisted For UEFA Player of the Year Award

Liverpool's defender Virgil van Dijk will be vying for this year's UEFA Player of the Year award after his name made the three-man list released by the continental governing body for the prestigious prize on Thursday.

The Dutch player is Jurgen Klopp leading centre-back player, who was instrumental to the club's successful Champions League run to win the title for the first time since 2004/05. Also, he played a vital role in the team's UEFA Super Cup victory over Chelsea on shoot-outs on Wednesday. 

He will join regular contenders in the person of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, both who have won the award on two and three occasions respectively. 

Both Ronaldo and Messi led their respective teams to win their domestic league title last season whilst Dijk led Liverpool to finish as league runners-up behind Manchester City, who finished the a domestic treble - Premier League, FA Cup and EFL Carabao Cup. 

Since 2010/11, a defender has not been listed amongst last three-man contenders for the prize until Van Dijk got shortlisted for this year's award.